THE GREAT REMINDER

This time out, Salt Lake City detectives Martin Traveler and son Moroni (The Spoken Word, etc.) take on a somber mission for dying Major Lewis Stiles. He wants them to find Karl Falke, one of many German POWs who worked on Utah farms during WW II. Falke disappeared in the wake of some nasty incidents in which German prisoners died. Stiles, then paymaster, still holds the small check owed Falke for work done, and his Mormon conscience won't rest. The Moronis try to talk to anyone who might remember Falke—like Otto Klebe, now a prominent church member, once a POW himself, and Owen Broadbent, the farmer who employed Falke. When Broadbent's son Mahlon tries to run them down, the Moronis know they're on the way to easing the Major's path to the hereafter. Intriguing Mormon lore, but the author's flat, cryptic style does little to invigorate a dreary plot. The Moronis have been livelier and more interesting.